A

    Jim comes from the U.S. He is now living in China. He gets up at about 6:30 and has breakfast at 7:00. After breakfast, he says goodbye to his parents and leaves home at 7:30. He usually walks to school. He gets there at 7:55. He has his first class at eight.

    Morning classes are over at 12:10 and he has lunch 10 minutes later. After lunch he plays with his friends.

    Afternoon classes begin at 1:30. Usually there are two lessons in the afternoon. The y finish at 3:30. Usually he plays games or other things at school, and he gets home at about 5:15. He has dinner at six and then does his homework and then watches TV. He goes to bed at about 10:30.

    "Jenny" Lang Ping, was born in 1960, Tianjin. She is a former Chinese volleyball player and the former head coach of the US Women's National Volleyball Team. Her nickname is the "Tron Hammer".

    In 1987, Lang Ping moved to Los Angeles to study and serve as an assistant volleyball coach at the University of New Mexico. She keeps Chinese nationality although she has lived in the USA for more than 15 years.

    Because of her central role in the success of the Chinese Women's Volleyball Team in the 1980s, Lang was seen as a cultural icon and is one of the most respected people in modern Chinese sports history. The Chinese Women's Volleyball Team with Lang was the first team to win the World Championship several times, including the1984 Olympics. She will always be remembered as one of the very first world champions for China. In 1989, she took over Modena, one of the top teams in the Italian League, and enjoyed great success there.

    In 1995, Lang became the head coach of the Chinese National Team and eventually guided the team to the silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and the second place at the 1998 World Volleyball Championships in Japan.

    She became the coach of the US National Team in2005. Lang guided the team to the 2008 Olympics, where the US team faced off with China in her home country. The US team won the victory against China 3:2. The US team went on to win the silver medal, losing to Brazil in the final 1:3.

    She was the head coach of the Chinese Women's National Volleyball Team in the World Volleyball Championships in Japan in 1998. In 2014, she was the only female head coach among the 24 teams' coaches in the World Volleyball Championships. On August 21, 2016, Lang Ping guided the Chinese Women's National Team to the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. With the victory, Lang Ping became the first person in volleyball history, male or female, to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games as a player in 1984(Los Angeles) and as a head coach in 2016(Rio).

A: It was a pity that I missed your birthday party. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} tell me something about it?

B: Yes, sure. First of all, they sang {#blank#}2{#/blank#} to me. 1 made a wish and blew out candles. Then we ate the birthday cake together.

A: Sounds interesting. What's that? Is that your gift?

B: Yes. It's from my mother. It is a watch.

A: {#blank#}3{#/blank#}?

B. It's made in Shanghai. And these CDs are from Lucy They are my favorite songs.

A: {#blank#}4{#/blank#}?

B: I like the music that it has great lyrics.

A: Me too.

B: So let's listen to the CDs together.

A: {#blank#}5{#/blank#}!

Once a scholar (学者) is going to a place by boat. The boatman set sail (启航) in his boat and the boat was moving slowly. The wind was 1 softly (轻柔地). There were beautiful sounds of waves (浪花) and hundreds of birds were flying in the sky. The scholar was feeling 2 . He was very proud of (对……感到自豪) his learning. He asked the boatman if he knew 3 the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The old man 4 , "No." The scholar told the boatman that his life was 5 .

The boatman said 6 but looked at the scholar. After a while, the scholar asked again if the boatman read 7 before. The boatman politely answered that he never read any book, so he knew nothing about geography. The scholar then told him that half of his life was wasted.

Then the sky became covered with dark clouds. Soon a terrible storm came. The waves were beating 8 against the boat. The scholar became very scared. Seeing this, the boatman asked him if he knew how to swim. The scholar said, "I read many books on swimming and know a lot about it, 9 I never tried swimming." The boatman then told him 10 , "Then you waste your whole life, because the boat is going to sink (下沉)!"

Eric's father managed an iron shop. He used to help his father1 the work in the shop. 

One day, Eric asked his father, "What's the2 of a person?" Father thought for a while, "Son, it's difficult to judge (判断) the value of any person because his or her value is priceless. "

Eric couldn't understand it, "How come? If the value of a person is priceless, then why some people get less respect while others get3 ?"

His father4 a piece of iron, "What do you think is the price of this iron?" Eric replied, "10 dollars."

Father asked again, "What5 happen if I make small nails (钉子) with it?" Erie said, "Doing this will6 its price, and it will be worth 50 dollars."

Father continued, "What if we use it to make a lot of springs(发条) for watches?" The son answered, "Then we can get more money from it."

Father smiled and said, "So you see, just because we turn the iron into7 different, its value is different, too." After hearing this, Eric felt like he understood what his father said. 

We often make mistakes in considering our value. Seeing our present situation, we start considering8 as valueless and meaningless.9 our value is not in what we are now but in what we can become in the future. So we should always keep improving ourselves10 try to understand our true value.